I wish you guys would do a DF retro on Earthworm Jim games. There’s some distinct differences between various versions, and most push some cool techniques for the time. Here’s hoping for a future episode 🤞
A most excellent retrospective 👍 An interesting parallel can be made between Golden Axe on Mega Drive and Final Fight on SNES. Both are early titles on those systems but while Final Fight was severely lacking (only 2 selectable characters, no co-op, 1 stage was removed...) Golden Axe on the other hand features 2 player co-op, every stages and even adds some extras! Sure Final Fight is a more memory-consuming game (bigger sprites, more stages...) but it relied on a 8 meg cart whereas Golden Axe was released 1 year before and only relied on a 4 meg cart. It's rather crazy. Also 17:27 internal sound hardware FTW! Those Yamaha FM chips are so rad whereas MIDI modules tend to produce hit-or-miss results. And here are a few suggestions that could be interesting for future DF Retro episodes: - Shinobi - Puyo Puyo - Road Rash - Earthworm Jim Keep up the good work guys.
And it's good to see you here MVG! Maybe one day we will see you here too, It would be the reunion of the legends of retro gaming, MLiG, DF, Game Sack, MVG and Retro RGB, one can just dream!
Right!?! Is this not the ultimate collab for a gaming-related RU-vid video !?! Just have to get you and spawn wave in there for a section about emulation and sales 😊
This was absolutely splendid to watch. Final Fight is one of my all time favourite games. I wish Capcom one day would make a new Final Fight game even if it means getting the guys who worked on Streets of Rage 4, this would be an incredible marriage.
I remember playing Final Fight in the arcade late 89 and was absolutely blown away by it and the first Turtles arcade game. Final Fight with the huge sprites and beautiful graphics changed video games forever and holds a special place in my heart even over Streets of Rage. I saw and played Final Fight for a few years even before Streets of Rage was even born! Hell the 7-11 down the street from my house had a little back space area where they housed a few arcade cabinets. Nowadays they just do lottery stuff back there, but back then they had a Final Fight arcade back there for awhile, the first Turtles arcade game for awhile, POW and many others! Final Fight was literally a game that I could walk in there and play almost every day! In fall 91 as young man in middle school a friend brought a Nintendo Power to school advertising the SNES and flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures I stumbled upon pictures of the SNES version of Final Fight and boy was I impressed! I found out it would only be 1 player and no Guy but I knew I had to have this game. So XMas 91 when I got my SNES that came with Super Mario World I received Final Fight as my first game bought separately for the system. And what a Xmas it was!
@@h.m.5724 I'm actually glad you said that. It lets me know that my life was real good. See when I say things like I played Final Fight in 89 it means nothing to me because I was there. It just lets me know that I shouldn't take for granted the things I saw because others weren't as privileged. Coliseum Mall Hampton, VA, the arcade was called Sega's Timeout! Wish you were there young man!
John is learning! Look at how much more he is moving his head and hands! Man i cant wait for especial DF episode about witchard hand gestures mastering.
Still no time stamps on the video, or links to Wikipedia pages and supporting documentation, despite it being the longest one yet. Where’s the learning?
First, I love you guys and your channel, I look forward to just about every video you put out. But I have to say, for a "definitive retrospective" on Final Fight, you sure do have a lot issues in this video. As others have pointed out, the wrestler is Macho Man Randy Savage, not Rick Rude (Ravishing Rick Rude). GLOW did not stand for "Glorious Ladies of Wrestling" it stood for "Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling." Two seconds of research would have cleared those up. Also, the arcade game is just over 3 megabytes (~24 megabit), something else that is pretty quick and easy to confirm by looking at an unzipped split mame rom. When you get easy stuff like this wrong, it calls into question the accuracy of everything, I'd strongly suggest a correction and reupload.
I was waiting to see if they would mention Pyron's color hack for Final Fight CD. He is my friend since 1994 when we got to be in the same class on school. And now seeing his name be mentioned by John himself is fucking awesome!
I had Final Fight CD back in the day. While I never thought it made it a better game than Streets of Rage 2 or 3, It was an awesome version of the game, and for the time, It felt like the best arcade port you could possibly get! Final Fight CD was really cool.
Those games and I believe a lot of KONAMI arcade games such as Crime Fighters and Crime Fighters II have never been released to a home or handheld system one physical media and that is disappointing!
@@davideselvi3906 only the Japanese version came out in '89, infact at the end of the year. So the probability of you playing it that year is close to none
The Arcade version is the definitive version. The remixed tracks ARE good but the attack speeds are slower and the picture is kinda grainy looking due to the S-CD palette limitations and there are still less enemies on screen than the arcade.
@@shootermcgavin1208 I'm very much aware of the difference in attack speeds, the less enemies on screen, some censorship still remaining, etc. But a good soundtrack is crucial to a good beat em up game and the OST in the Sega CD version just adds so much more to the experience. It's still a very good version all things considered. The things you mention aren't really things I feel have a big negative impact on the game and are pretty minor. It's still very playable and enjoyable.
Sega CD is also definitive for me because it's m9re balanced and fair. The arcade game is a coin muncher first and foremost . it floods the screen with way too many enemies for a single player to the point it becomes cheap. Also Sega CD has extra mode and voiced intro and ending. With the color correction hack, it's the definitive version no doubt.
After seeing streets of rage 4 "decent success" I wonder when or will these companies start resurrecting 2D adventure brawler games again. Forget 3D,modern 2D comic book/anime graphics is the way to go as evidenced by streets of rage 4. Unless, you go the arc sys way and produce something like DBFZ arts wise. And speaking of which, 2D dragon ball adventure brawler game, is such a thing even exist? How about trying to make one, eh Bandai Namco?
Streets of Rage 4 was ok, but it did almost nothing new with the gameplay. In essence, it was just another generic brawler with a few modern cosmetics. Well made, but money for old rope.
27:00 recommendation for best version of Final Fight 1 (for arcade perfect, it's Double Impact) 37:11 Final Fight 3 (official timestamps still show it as being under Muscle Bomber)
I remember i was so good at this game I needed 1 coin to beat it. I was playing with Cody. With Cody u could press punch and then move the stick left and right. Basically the enemy gets stuck in your punches. This move worked on all enemies and bosses as well.
I do that too! It works with Guy as well. These days I’m lazy though and use an auto-fire board with my JAMMA cab so I don’t have to hammer the punch button.
Works with all characters but it's better to do it with either Cody or Guy. Haggar only has 3 hit in his combo. You basically start punching them and before the last hit that sends them bouncing back you hit punch in the opposite direction and the combo resets and starts again. This trick is used in many TAS runs to drain bosses life in an instant.
Yeah that is tough to believe. The arcade game was super cheap with too many enemies to crowd you. Sega CD with the color correction patch is the most balanced and the best version for me.
I'm no bullshitter man! Believe me. Pretty sure the game was on hard since countless of enemies where present in some scenes attacking you from all directions. U have no idea how many ppl were spending coins on that game. There was even a line at that arcade. When someone was playing Final Fight people gather around it :D. I wasn't good at Final Fight from the start. I spent a lot of time and money trying to learn every move from the enemy and bosses, how many are going to appear in a particular scene and when to use my melee weapons and stuff. After that I became good. But mostly I beat the game using the punching strategy. Actually only 4 or 5 ppl from my arcade managed to beat the game. Me and 2 others could beat the game with 1 coin.
I fell in love with the original arcade release of this game aged 6 and still love it 30 years later. I guess Guy Cody and Haggar were my childhood sweethearts....
Then 3D games and the advances game storage with CD-ROMs came along and destroyed them. Everybody wanted to play the new 3D games and you could get them in the home now. We realize now that early 3D games were are barely playable while a good sprite base game is infinitely more playable. Id rather play Space Invaders, Pac-Man or Donkey Kong than any early 3D game.
If it's any consolation, I had the C64 version. In fact, I still have it in "big box" cassette format. Absolutely dreadful! I do remember enjoying the Atari ST version my cousin had back in the day though, despite its shortcomings.
Final Fight is an overrated series. Only the arcade version of the first game was any good. All of the home releases were mediocre to awful and compare quite poorly to Streets of Rage (which admittedly wouldn't exist without Final Fight,) particularly Streets of Rage 2 which is the pinnacle of the series.
River City Girls has an amazing soundtrack as well. It even has a number of references and characters from Double Dragon Neon. Skullmageddon runs a shop.
_Dad took off my training wheels,_ _Boy oh boy how great it feels!_ _In no time I'm cruisin' around,_ _Immediately fell and smashed my teeth out_ _Fractured my jaw!_
...and as easily as that, a copy of Streets of Fire on Blu-ray found its way to my Amazon basket. Great film btw, if anyone is curious ;) I always though Mike Haggar had more of the Jesse Ventura about him than the macho man.
How can you guys so a Final Fight video which has FFRevenge, but not a DF Retro on Virtua Fighter? Please look into the ports too! Saturn VF1, Saturn VF2, and Dreamcast VF3 are all fascinating! VF2 is the most miracle arcade port!
@@ajsingh4545 Actually it was kind of true, but that's not a reflection on the Amiga's capabilities, rather just the amount of shit that was allowed to be released for it. It was a great machine, but too many greedy publishes just churned out crap for it.
Man, what a crazy quality episode! I'm glad you mentioned the Capcom Beat em Up bundle eventually at the end as I think it's a great conversation and certainly the best and easy version to get hold of right now. Loved the intro and the quality of this video was top notch. Great work all.
When discussing the inspirations behind Haggar, I think DF forgot to mention Jesse The Body Ventura. In my opinion, I think that’s mostly where Capcom drew their inspiration from. Jesse the body was an American Actor/Wrestler/Mayor of Minnesota. In my mind, this is EXACTLY who Haggar was inspired from. Coincidentally enough, Jesse Ventura as Mayor was behind a railway named METRO BLUE. This all went on between 1990 and 1994.
The 360/PS3 version with the arcade bezel and scan lines is as good as it gets in the home for me. Cannot for the life of me see how the MegaCD can be placed above it when it features reduced enemies on screen.
It always seemed funny to me how the JP Mega CD version used the actual arcade sample of the guy crying over his car being beat up (in the bonus round) but the US Sega CD version used the SNES sample instead. I guess its because the arcade one was "Oh my god" but the SNES was a muffled and dull sounding "Oh my car"
So that explains why I never beat Final Fight on NES as a kid, it was on the freaking hardest difficulty. Damn you people who made the port! Final Fight 2 and 3 were super easy in contrast, so easy it was disappointing, first playthrough beatings are not that awesome.
Capcom was supposed to come out with an HD version of Final Fight like they did with Street Fighter HD remix, I remember seeing a few pictures of the HD version in a magazine : what happened to it ?
Possibly the greatest ever episode from the great DF Retro series! Would love to see you tackle the Tomb Raider series next (and don't skip on the N-Gage).
Not a fan of guest narrators. I don't mean these narrators in particular, but any. Of course, that's just me, but thinking about no big budget documentary ever had more than one narrator, and I guess I like that.
14:50 Probably an oversight for the console, but I imagine arcade operators requested the highest difficulty being the default so they didn't have to remember to keep setting the machine to max difficulty. I don't think it was ever a big secret that arcades, especially when first released, were set to max difficulty to take your quarters. Only the old cabinets in the back, which perhaps the operators liked to play themselves, would be set to a reasonable difficulty.
I don't really understand how they couldn't make the jump from 2D to 3D with beat 'em ups? It annoys the living shit out of me because this happens to be my all-time favorite genre.
Stayed up late the other night playing Final Fight: Double Impact via PS Now. It includes Magic Sword, a game no one ever talks about but is a blast! Seriously! I've had Double Impact downloaded on PS3 for several years but never really played it. Grab a mug of ale, play Magic Sword.
Good video, but I was hoping to see more of a comparison with the version of Final Fight in the Capcom Beat'em Up Bundle. I may need to boot it up along with the Final Fight Dbl Impact on 360. Between the two I swear I remember seeing censorship differences
That intro was sick. I love that this series continues to up the production values. Also, that was Macho Man Randy Savage. YEEEUUUHHHHH! Rick Rude was somebody else.
I love both, but it pisses me off when people slate Final Fight by using Streets of Rage an an example, as just about everything in Streets of Rage is a copy of what was originally in Final Fight. Innovation counts for a lot, and Final Fight not only redefined the genre, it innovated most of what become staple - including Streets of Rage.
YES!!!! AWESOME VIDEO GUYS IT'S TOO BAD CAPCOM IS NOT GOING TO GIVE FINAL FIGHT ONE MORE CHANCE TO GET IT RIGHT I KNOW A LOT OF PEOPLE WOULD LOVE TO SEE THIS GAME IN TODAY'S TIME
"Capcom told the Streetwise devs to make it more like Grand Theft Auto" Whoever said words will never hurt me is a big big liar. Im gonna need stitches after hearing something like that.
The best conversion to the consoles were Final Fight CD for Sega Mega CD. It had stunning graphics, much much better sound track than arcade and gameplay is excellent.
Not even close. Those excessively dithered graphics sucked and the music was slower with intros that took too long to get to the main melody. This was a common mistake of CD remakes of music during this time. The gameplay is painfully slow and clunky. It feels like the Sega CD can't process more than one animation or collision at a time. The SNES version has the best music and you've gotta love those satisfying pipe sounds. Final Fight One for Game Boy Advance was the best playing home conversion with tons of on screen enemies and even a few bonuses.
The game itself does a terrible job of explaining it but following appearances of Cody (especially the @ Cody cutscenes in Final Fight One) flesh it out. Basically, Cody was addicted to fighting and is on the brink of breaking bad himself. Guy beat him up trying to knock some sense into him and get him to calm down and be with Jessica. Cody ultimately misleads Jessica. His urge has nothing to do with "evil" in the streets. He's just violent. Highly recommend watching the movie Streets of Fire. As mentioned, that movie influenced Final Fight a lot and the ending of the game makes more sense in context with it.
